


Pavise

by fancywaffles, TheIllusiveMantis



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Babies, Canon Universe, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27886924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancywaffles/pseuds/fancywaffles, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIllusiveMantis/pseuds/TheIllusiveMantis
Summary: It was really ridiculous how often Sylvain thought about that kiss in the snow. He shouldn’t have had his best kiss at nine. Or he should’ve gotten another one afterwards, at least.(or, Sylvain gets to pine this time)
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 39
Kudos: 304
Collections: Sylvix Advent Calendar





	Pavise

**Author's Note:**

> This is super self-indulgent fluff brought on by me joking about how the only winter based idea I could think of was Sylvain and Felix using _Aegis_ as a sled. Escalated greatly by Lora and I egging each other on about more fluff!! MORE FLUFF!!!
> 
> Workskin on if you're on mobile to have the images resized.

Felix was upset.

Sylvain _hated_ when Felix was upset. It wasn’t even the easy kind of upset, that involved tears and taking something Glenn or Dimitri had said the wrong way. That was easily solved with a hug and letting him get it all out. It was the kind of upset where Felix stared at the wall and didn’t feel like playing.

“We could read a book?” Sylvain asked. He’d come up with practically eight different things they could do, but Felix hadn’t responded to any. It wasn’t like Sylvain could fix this problem. He didn’t do parents. Parents were too much to deal with. He liked Felix’s father, but he couldn’t tell him to be nicer to Felix. He was an adult.

Felix probably would’ve done that if the situations were reversed. Sylvain had to keep him from yelling at the Margrave once.

The thought brought a smile to Sylvain’s face and he felt a twist in his gut, because he couldn’t muster up the same kind of courage.

Maybe not that kind of courage. But the stupid kind? He was an expert at that.

“We could go sledding?” Sylvain suggested with a grin, though Felix didn’t react much beyond a disinterested shrug. “I bet we can both fit on _Aegis_ ,” Sylvain added.

Felix finally turned around and stared at him. His brows furrowed as he frowned. There was still baby fat around his cheeks, but Sylvain could see it disappearing and felt sad about it. “You want to sled on my dad’s shield?”

Sylvain nodded.

Felix usually took a little more talking into when it came to _blatant rule breaking_ , but he was too upset with his father to be the good kid. He smiled at Sylvain. “Okay.”

It turned out to be a lot easier than Sylvain thought it would be to steal an ancient Fraldarius relic. Maybe no one thought anyone would be stupid enough to try it, so they didn’t really keep it under lock and key. That kind of loophole was Sylvain’s favorite.

It was heavy enough that holding it himself was giving Sylvain trouble, so Felix grabbed the other end and they snuck past most of the servants—too busy with Founding Day preparations to care much about the goings on of the children of the house.

They weren’t able to sneak past Glenn, coming back inside from his lance training. He stared at them, one dark eyebrow raised. Sylvain could practically feel Felix’s very unintimidating challenging glare back at Glenn.

Glenn wasn’t _really_ much older than Sylvain, but he acted like he was. “What are you two doing?”

“Sledding,” Felix said, stubbornly.

“On _Aegis_?” Glenn asked, both eyebrows raised.

“We’ll fit,” Sylvain said, as if that were the problem.

Glenn looked at him and then looked at Felix. He seemed to be thinking it over, then he walked over to Felix, pulled his hood up and tied it so tightly most of Felix’s face disappeared around the fur. “Don’t get a head injury.”

Sylvain stared up at him, surprised. He was always surprised that brothers could be like that, but Felix only stuck his tongue out at him. Glenn laughed and patted his head before walking off. “You get caught and I saw nothing!”

Felix went to undo his hood and Sylvain shook his head. “It’s cold anyway.”

Felix crinkled his nose, but listened, only loosening it a little so the fur wasn’t covering his eyes. “What about yours?”

Sylvain shrugged. “I don’t get cold and the Margrave said my head is too thick to get injured.”

Felix frowned and put his side of the shield down on the floor. He walked closer and pushed up on his tiptoes to pull Sylvain’s hood up. “Your head isn’t thick,” he said, just as stubbornly as he’d told Glenn they were sledding.

Sylvain grinned at him and kept it on.

They made their way to the big hill behind the back gardens, up where the horses grazed when it wasn’t snowing. The incline was steep enough that it’d be really fast going down, but not so steep that either of them would get a head injury. Probably. They set the shield down and tried to figure out how to arrange themselves.

“I don’t want to go behind you; I won’t be able to see,” Felix said.

“Okay, but you have to steer,” Sylvain said. He didn’t think it was the best idea. Felix had been terrible at their riding lessons, but it was a sled so it probably wasn’t the same thing—and Sylvain didn’t want to give him any reasons to chicken out. Sylvain settled down on the very edge of _Aegis_ and draped his legs over the front and Felix settled down between them, adjusting himself until they were both on the sled properly.

“Hold on,” Felix said. His voice was flush with excitement. Sylvain put one arm around Felix’s middle and one hand on the shield and they pushed off. It was a little bumpier than a regular sled, but the skidding downhill was as fun as anything else they’d tried. Felix’s snorting laughter as they spun at the end of the hill was one of the best sounds Sylvain knew.

They tried it a couple more times, each time laughing as they hit the bottom of the hill. It was cold, but not the kind of cold that made it hard to stay outside and Sylvain was too happy to complain even if it had been.

The fifth time they’d tried it, they hit a small bump neither of them had seen and _Aegis_ glowed brightly before pitching them forward, butt over face directly into the snowbank at the bottom of the hill. Snow practically went up Sylvain’s nose and his leg hurt, but not even nearly as bad as he knew it could. He pushed himself up to sitting and quickly looked Felix over to make sure he was okay.

Felix’s face was red and he had his eyes closed like he was in pain, but then he started laughing. Sylvain couldn’t help laughing too, it was contagious.

“What was that?” he asked.

“My Crest went off,” Felix said through giggling snorts. He’d been laughing so hard that his eyes were wet at the corners and part of his hood had come undone. His cheeks were bright red with joy and Sylvain wasn’t sure why—except that he wanted to—so he leaned down and kissed him.

The press of his lips to Felix’s was brief and dry, but his lips didn’t feel as cold as the rest of his face. Maybe that was because Felix’s cheeks were red. “Checking for a head injury,” Sylvain said, not sure why.

“What kind of healers does your house have?” Felix asked, nose wrinkling.

Sylvain laughed and shrugged. His mom sometimes checked his temperature that way, but she always used his forehead. He’d probably meant to do that. Or maybe it was because he’d seen his parents when they were in a rare good mood do it. It was what people did when they were happy. He was pretty sure anyway.

Felix didn’t bring it up again and they dragged the shield back up the hill to give it another try.

***

Sylvain hadn’t seen Felix all day, which was weird since he’d checked the library, the dining hall, and the training yard (twice). He’d run into Rodrigue, who had also been looking for Felix, but neither Sylvain nor the Professor could help him out. It wasn’t really like Felix to traverse into town without Sylvain pestering him into taking a break, so Sylvain was at a loss.

Then after a sudden rainstorm descended upon him, he opened the door to his own room and Felix was there sitting on the floor scowling at a book. He glanced up from the book at Sylvain’s approach and said, “You need to start locking your door.”

Sylvain blinked at him. “Why are you here?” Not that he was complaining. He’d pictured coming back to his room and finding Felix there before, but less scowly and more lounging on his bed in an about to turn into a dirty dream kind of way.

“I can leave,” Felix said, closing his book.

“I didn’t say that,” Sylvain said, quickly. “I just… are you hiding from your father in my room?”

Felix’s scowl deepened. “I’m not _hiding_. I just don’t want to talk to him.”

“So you decided to go to the one place he wouldn’t think to check?” Sylvain guessed. Either that or he trusted Sylvain enough that this was a default location for safety. He would have loved if that was the actual answer.

Felix shrugged, then looked down at his book. A textbook, of all things.

Sylvain closed the door behind him and walked over to Felix. He settled down on the floor, leaning his back against his bed. Felix stared at him, but didn’t say anything. Sylvain hummed under his breath and then broke the silence. “You want to talk about it?”

“No,” Felix said, not shocking Sylvain in the slightest.

“You want me to sneak you out of the Monastery?” Sylvain offered, smirking.

He enjoyed the indulgent eye roll Felix responded with. “I’ll deal with him eventually, I’m just not in the mood to hear his—” Felix shook his head, exorcising the momentary glimpse of something other than derision. “Don’t you have a lecture you’re supposed to be attending?”

“You memorized my schedule?” Sylvain leaned over to pat Felix’s knee, which Felix immediately moved away from him. “That’s so sweet.”

“I was planning on being out of here before you got back.”

“And hide in Ingrid’s room?” Sylvain guessed.

Felix made a face at him. “I’m not _hiding_.”

“Fine, fine,” Sylvain said, dismissively. “You okay, though?” He didn’t know exactly what had happened to put such a fracture in Felix and his father’s relationship, but since it had happened right around the time Glenn died, he could guess.

Felix didn’t respond for a moment, long enough for Sylvain to worry that he’d said something to upset him. Then Felix’s voice came out a little softer than Sylvain was expecting. “You’re the one who should be asked that.”

“Why?” Sylvain asked, genuinely forgetting the circle of hell his life had been since this month’s mission had been announced. Then he remembered all at once and let out a soft, unfeeling laugh. “Yeah, well. Can’t exactly hide from my brother if we’re going to confront him.”

Confront was a nice easy way of pretending they didn’t know the inevitable outcome of any mission—dealing with bandits never seemed to end peacefully, adding Miklan to the mix didn’t seem like it would exactly _improve_ the odds.

He’d tried apologizing to Rodrigue about his brother deciding to hold up in Fraldarius territory (what was that about?), but both father and son had the same ‘what is wrong with you, Sylvain?’ look.

“You’re wet,” Felix said, drawing Sylvain back to the moment.

He brushed a hand over his wet hair and snorted. “Right. I came back to my room to dry off.”

It had started raining out of nowhere, which was normal for this time of year. “I like snow better than rain,” Sylvain said, as he pushed himself up to standing. He dug around for a spare cloth to dry his hair off. “Can’t sled in the rain after all.”

“We’re too old for that anyway,” Felix said.

“I didn’t say you were invited,” Sylvain retorted and grinned at Felix’s unimpressed glare. “Mind if I change? Or will that offend your delicate sensibilities and get me called insatiable again?”

“I already apologized,” Felix said, testy. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the wall. “Do whatever you want, it’s your room. Not like I haven’t seen it before.”

“ _It_?” Sylvain asked, a little too interested.

There was a blush peppering the side of Felix’s face and crawling its way up towards his ears. It was insanely cute. “Shut up, Sylvain.”

“Do you think your dad brought _Aegis_?” Sylvain asked, keeping his voice easy, as he snatched up a spare shirt and trousers.

“I doubt he’s coming on the mission with us,” Felix said. He was still staring at the wall. Beyond the blush it was nice staring at him without being snapped at.

Felix had lost all the baby fat and beneath the rounded cheeks were apparently sharp daggers called cheekbones. It was really ridiculous how often Sylvain thought about that kiss in the snow. He shouldn’t have had his best kiss at nine. Or he should’ve gotten another one afterwards, at least.

“Still,” Sylvain said, pulling on a dry shirt and changing out of the rest of his soaked clothes. “Could use it to sled. Or… ski? I don’t know what you’d call sliding down a wet hill.”

“Idiotic,” Felix suggested.

“You remember when we were kids and we stole the—”

Sylvain didn’t get to finish. Felix stood up, a little too sharply, still staring at the wall. “I don’t want to talk about my father anymore.”

It wasn’t really his father Sylvain was trying to bring up, but maybe Felix knew that and also didn’t want to talk about it. Might not have been the best kiss _he’d_ ever had.

“Okay,” Sylvain said, easy, like it didn’t bother him at all. He nudged Felix in the arm. “I’m decent, sweetheart, you can look now without violating your virgin eyeballs.”

That got the intended reaction. Felix turned around and punched him in the arm. “Stop being stupid.”

They were both standing now. Felix still had the book in his hand. He glanced up at the door, his mouth twisting into a frown.

Sylvain would never stop being stupid, because instead of doing the sane thing and letting Felix leave, he said, “You want to hang out here for a while and not hide?” He smiled when Felix glanced back at him. “We could study?”

“Since when do you study?” Felix asked.

“Since we got a really hot professor,” Sylvain answered.

Felix grunted in disgust, but he sat down on the edge of Sylvain’s bed, book in his lap. “I’m trying to learn _Thunder_ ,” he said. “Apparently I have a budding talent in reason magic.”

The disgust in which he delivered what was clearly a compliment from the Professor made it hard for Sylvain to hold back his laugh, but he managed to only turn it into a wide grin as he sat down next to Felix on his bed and held his hands out for the book. “You came to the right place. Apparently I have no weaknesses in anything.”

Felix glanced at him, amber eyes sharp and gripping. It was like he could look right through him. Maybe Sylvain had one weakness.

***

“Guess it was west after all,” Sylvain said, as they set the wooden slats up against the entrance to the cave.

They were lucky this one wasn’t infested with bears, bats, or worse. Almost four years into this war and it was nothing but horrible surprises; it would’ve been just his luck to walk them into a hiding spot of a demonic beast. Then again maybe fighting it would’ve warmed them up.

Felix’s arms were wrapped around himself in a death grip and the only noise he made was the chatter of his teeth. It didn’t look like the storm was going to clear up any time soon. Sylvain felt a little guilty about how much he enjoyed wrapping an arm around Felix. “Body heat,” he said at Felix’s flinch and glare.

“Think the battalion got out from it?” Felix asked, letting Sylvain walk him further into the cave where they’d set the rest of the spare wood they’d been able to salvage—right before hurrying inside only moments before the blizzard really hit.

“They’re mostly Gautier troops,” Sylvain said, confident in his voice if not his heart, “they’re used to this kind of weather.”

Felix nodded, frowning maybe—it was hard to see in the cave’s darkness. They went to work finding any pieces of wood that weren’t completely soaked and built the world’s smallest fire. Felix didn’t make any physical objections this time as Sylvain wrapped an arm around him and tucked him into his side while they sat as close to the flame as was feasible.

Felix shivered a little and moved closer so that he was pretty much flush against Sylvain’s side. Sylvain wondered if he could pull off suggesting he sit in his lap so that more areas of heat were being transferred. That was probably pushing it.

“We should’ve gone south,” Felix said. “Met up with the Galatea troops. Then those—” He cut off, curling into himself from more than the cold and dragged his knees up to his chest.

Sylvain’s hand automatically started rubbing circles against his arm. “It’s not your fault, Fe.”

“Like hell it’s not,” Felix said. He was tired. Sylvain had noticed since their battalions had met up. Felix had taken Dimitri’s death harder than any of them and it didn’t seem to be getting better now that he was keeping an eye out for the possibility that their prince _wasn’t_ dead.

Sylvain wanted to believe it himself. He wanted to believe that Dimitri and the Professor would just magically show up some day like in a storybook and lead them out of this blood-soaked war. It was hard to believe in things lately.

“We didn’t know we’d get cut off at Arlon,” Sylvain said. “That route has been fine for at least a year. There was no way to know the Dukedom was planning on cutting it loose.”

“Don’t call them that,” Felix said, with an irritated scoff. “Fucking turncoat cowards, the lot of them.”

Wouldn’t be so bad, Sylvain thought, if they could turn one more time. It was getting harder and harder in Gautier to defend two fronts as incursions from Sreng picked up almost eerily around the time the Empire pushed forward. Sylvain didn’t think it was a coincidence.

“Let’s talk about something nicer,” Sylvain suggested. “Might as well freeze to death with a cheerful mood.”

“Shut up,” Felix said, but it sounded a little easier and the shoulders beneath Sylvain’s arms relaxed a bit. “We’re not going to die. At most we’ll get frostbite and lose a few toes.”

“See that’s what I love about you, Fe, always the optimist.”

Felix snorted, tired but genuine. “What do you want to talk about then?”

A million things came to mind, like they always did, but one thing in particular stood out. It wasn’t something Sylvain should really bring up when Felix had nowhere to flee (even if a part of his brain told him this would be the perfect time, because of that fact). He stared at their filthy piece of wood, protecting them from the sharp chill and acrid bite of the storm outside. For some reason it reminded him of a sled.

“Remember when we went sledding on _Aegis_?”

He thought maybe Felix would cut him off, tell him he didn’t want to talk about it, but instead he nodded and leaned back a little, so that his head was resting against Sylvain’s shoulder. “That was so incredibly stupid.”

Felix’s hair was so much shorter now. Sylvain wanted to run his fingers through it.

“It was fun though,” Sylvain said.

“Not the part where we got caught,” Felix pointed out. He snorted. “Never seen my father that pissed. Glenn was—Glenn was no help either.”

The fact that he’d mentioned his brother and kept going made Sylvain feel almost as warm as Felix burrowing into him did. It was like Felix felt safe enough that he could let down his guard. That was pretty much all Sylvain wanted (or at least all he thought he could get).

“You didn’t get a head injury,” Sylvain said.

“Mm,” Felix said, noncommittal. He’d turned slightly, so his knees—still drawn up—were brushing against Sylvain’s side.

“You remember how I checked?” Sylvain asked, quietly. It was a small risk, but a good one, he thought. When else in this war were they going to have the chance?

Felix didn’t reply. Sylvain’s heart sunk into his stomach for a moment before he realized the reason was that Felix had fallen asleep, his head still pillowed on Sylvain.

Sylvain watched him for a minute, enjoying the way the flame licked shadows over his cheeks, and then when he was absolutely certain Felix’s breathing was far too even for him to wake—he brushed his lips against his forehead.

No head injury this time either. Unless Sylvain counted his own, but that was more of a permanent sort of affliction.

***

“Are you free?” Felix asked. He looked a little awkward standing there, a sword and a shield in his hands. Kinda made it clear what he was asking for.

“I trained today,” Sylvain protested. It was mostly true. He’d done spellwork—that was basically the same thing. It wasn’t like he was slacking off, he was just… taking a break. They’d be onto retaking Fhirdiad soon enough, but it wasn’t like it was _tomorrow_.

“Fine,” Felix said shortly, before turning around.

Sylvain followed him, feeling like an asshole. “Hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I just don’t want you asking me to train because you think I’m lazy.”

“I wasn’t…” Felix trailed off and shifted the weight of the shield in his hand. “I need practice, I’m not used to fighting with the weight.”

“You’re taking _Aegis_ out?” Sylvain asked.

He was more surprised than maybe he should’ve been. Felix had been… quiet since his father died. He hadn’t made much of a reaction beyond throwing himself into training. At least a public reaction. Sylvain had chased after him after he’d first found out and Felix had stormed off in the opposite direction. Everyone thought he was angry, but Sylvain knew better. Felix had found the only privacy he could scrape up and was crying bitterly into his hands. Other than being there for him through that, Felix hadn’t mentioned it since.

Felix’s focus had been taking back Fhirdiad, supporting a plan of Dimitri’s he actually agreed with.

“It seems like a waste if I don’t,” Felix said. “It’s a powerful relic. It’d be like leaving the _Lance of Ruin_ at the Monastery.”

“I think about doing that all the time,” Sylvain said. He didn’t get even a smirk out of Felix. “You don’t have to change your entire fighting style.”

“I’m not. I trained with shields before; it’s just been a while.”

“All right, you want me to throw fireballs at you or use my lance?” Sylvain asked. “I suspect some careful dance moves and motivational magic won’t really be helpful.”

Again no laugh or smirk. “Lance,” Felix said. “I’ll find Ashe later to shoot at me.”

“Felix, we have to talk about your hobbies sometime,” Sylvain said, chiding.

Felix didn’t even roll his eyes. He walked into the training yard and waited for Sylvain to grab a lance. Sylvain picked up a blunt one with a similar heft to what he was used to and they started. Felix was unmatched when it came to swordwork, but Sylvain was able to beat him in a couple of rounds.

“It’s not the weight that’s the problem,” Sylvain said.

Felix was angrily picking out a different practice sword and adjusting the straps on his shield again. “What?”

“You’re not using the shield,” Sylvain said. “You’re wearing it.”

Felix looked up, frowning, his brows furrowing. “What does that mean?”

“Let’s go again, but only use the shield,” Sylvain suggested.

Felix had the sword in his hand and his grip on it tightened like it was the world’s sharpest security blanket, but he put it down and relented to Sylvain’s strategy. They went around each other and started another spar. Sylvain still won, but then went slower on the next round so Felix could adjust to using something to protect himself rather than throwing himself directly into the heat of battle.

Sylvain was pretty happy he’d decided to use _Aegis_. If Felix used it right, it would save Sylvain a lot of stress from keeping an eye out on the flurry of sword, that moved throughout the battlefield like a lone wolf.

Felix picked up on it pretty fast. They’d only needed to do a couple of rounds before he demanded Sylvain go faster. Sylvain won the next round, but not the round after that. Eventually Felix felt comfortable enough to try it out with a sword again.

It was hours more in the training yard than Sylvain would prefer to spend—his muscles ached and his brow sweat soaked—but the small twitch upwards of Felix’s lips was totally worth it.

“You want to try it with the real thing?” Sylvain asked.

Felix shook his head. “Maybe tomorrow.” He sounded a little out of breath, which was helping soothe Sylvian’s ego.

“All right, but don’t activate your Crest on me, there’s no soft snow to land in.”

Felix snorted. “I’m not planning on sledding past the enemy.”

“Really? I think that’s a strategy that has some merit. They won’t see it coming.”

The normalcy of Felix’s flustered annoyance pointed in his direction was one of the best things Sylvain had seen in a while. “You’re an idiot.” Felix then turned away and cleared his throat. “I mean, thank you. This was helpful.”

“Any time,” Sylvain said, honestly. There was something beneath it, bubbling beneath the surface that Sylvain wanted to dig his fingers into until he got at it, but—they were retaking their home soon. It wasn’t really the time to try something stupid.

***

Sylvain wouldn’t say he was desperately shoving people aside in search of Felix, but he also wouldn’t say he wasn’t not doing that. In his defense they’d gotten separated at the beginning of the battle. It had been at least two hours after the insane relief of ‘we won’ had spread over the troops since he’d seen him. Felix was fine. Felix had to be fine, because if he wasn’t Sylvain was—

All the air left Sylvain’s lungs as he found Felix. He was sitting on an upturned piece of rubble, staring out into nothing in the direction of a conquered Enbarr.

“Are you injured?” Sylvain asked.

Felix blinked, drawing himself out of whatever he was thinking about and turned towards Sylvain. “Not my blood,” he said.

“Right,” Sylvain said. That was a good thing. That was a good thing that would never have to be a good thing again because the war was over. “We won, you know.”

“I heard,” Felix said.

“You don’t seem happy about it?” Sylvain asked, he risked coming closer, on the pretense of double-checking it wasn’t actually Felix’s blood. Felix must’ve been out of it, because he let him and didn’t even move when Sylvain wiped some of it off his neck with his hand.

“I’m…” He looked up at Sylvain. Maybe it was good that Felix didn’t like too much eye contact because whenever he gave it to Sylvain, he felt pinned in place. “Are you okay?”

“Fit as a fiddle,” Sylvain said. “Perks of trailing the Professor.” He looked around Felix, but didn’t really see too much room to find his own spot of rubble to splay himself over, so he settled for lifting his knee and setting his foot next to Felix. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Felix said, “I’m just…” He let out a strangled laugh and then rubbed his gloved hand over his face. “I don’t know what to do next. I’m… this war has been all we’ve had to think about for six years.”

“I’m not exactly going to miss it,” Sylvain said. He swallowed when Felix leaned back against his calf and knee.

“Not miss it,” Felix said. “But at least it had a purpose and direction. I don’t know what to do now. Don’t know what I’m even good for at this point.”

“Anything,” Sylvain said, too full of feeling, because Felix looked up at him again, eyes widening. Sylvain tried quickly to cover it. “I mean, we can do anything. Right? That’s the whole point of fighting in the first place. It got lost in years of literal shit, but hey, we’re here now. Together and alive, that’s good right?”

Felix stared at him for a moment. “A little better than good,” he said, glancing away again.

Sylvain tried to ignore the feeling roiling in his gut, mixing with the relief of this all being over. “We could do anything,” he repeated. “The possibilities are endless. What do you want to do?”

Felix sighed. “I have no idea.”

He was resting _Aegis_ against his own leg, his arm on top of the shield that had protected him through the last fight. Sylvain had never wanted to thank an inanimate object before. “We could go sledding?”

Felix turned back to give Sylvain a familiar expression of consternation and complete befuddlement. “It’s summer.”

They could do anything now. “Yeah,” Sylvain said, feeling like this was more terrifying than facing down the Emperor’s forces. “I could still check you for a head injury though.”

Felix blinked at him. It took Sylvain a second to realize his expression wasn’t confusion, as a flush started covering his nose and cheeks. “If you want,” Felix said, casual, like it was no big deal. Like it wasn’t the only thing Sylvain had wanted to do every single day since the first time he’d done it.

Felix went easy when Sylvain pulled him to his feet, slipping perfectly into Sylvain’s arms. Sylvain leaned down and brushed his lips against Felix’s, soft, chaste, and quick. “Seems like you’re good.”

Felix was a little too out of breath for the small movement of standing up. “You should probably check again.”

There was absolutely little Felix could have asked of him that Sylvain wouldn’t give him, but that was something he had zero problem listening to—he kissed Felix properly. It was still soft but this time it wasn’t chaste or quick.

Felix pulled Sylvain down by the neck, causing him to go off balance a little and have to bring his foot down off the upturned rubble to regain it. Felix kissed him back like he’d been wanting to do it for as long as Sylvain had. Sylvain’s lance fell to the ground a second before _Aegis_ toppled over with a louder clank. Sylvain barely noticed as he wrapped his arms fully around Felix, drawing him as close as he could possibly get and kissed him and kissed him like they really could do anything.

***

Sylvain stretched out in a very undignified manner on the sette, giving into the indulgence of observing his husband. Their youngest was asleep on Sylvain’s chest, little baby fingers curling into the fabric of Sylvain’s shirt and Felix was being read to by their middle child. Basile was taking his time sounding out the words and Felix was patiently waiting each time until he asked for help before he’d give it.

There was a fire roaring and their eldest was probably throwing things in her room with her friend, so it was a fairly perfect winter day.

There was a loud clanging noise in the hallway followed by the fitful angry noises of two children, one of whom was too recognizable to be anyone but Ameline. Felix was up first. Sylvain had to adjust himself and rise from the prone position he was in without jostling Markus enough to wake him.

By the time he made it out into the hallway he almost choked to keep from laughing.

“It was Ameline’s idea!” the blue-eyed best friend of his eldest said, pointing at her. Clearly more terrified of Felix than any other kind of consequence.

“So what!” Ameline said, unapologetic, the shield relic of Fraldarius too big in her hands. It was impressive that they’d got it this far.

“You’re not even wearing a coat,” Felix said, sternly, confusing both of the guilty parties in front of him.

Ameline, quick to argue (where she got _that_ from wasn’t a mystery) said, “I’m not cold.”

“I don’t care,” Felix said. “Go put your coat and gloves on.”

Ameline huffed a breath and then her confusion warred with her interest in having a fight. “We can go?”

“Not by yourself,” Sylvain said. “You heard your Papa, go put on a coat and gloves.”

Felix glanced back at him, amusement plain on his face now. “Don’t think you’re getting out of wearing one either.”

“I would never,” Sylvain said, enjoying the way the girls ran off to Ameline’s room before the situation could change.

It had snowed heavy the night before, but the air was crisp and just the right level of cold that cut into Sylvain’s chest and made each breath a little sharper. Markus was somehow still asleep, nestled under far too many layers on Sylvain’s chest, while Basile was hiding behind Felix’s legs as the girls dragged _Aegis_ to their preferred spot to slide down the hill.

“To victory!” Ameline yelled as they started sliding. Her friend merely shrieked and giggled.

“Maybe it should be a sled instead of a shield,” Sylvain suggested, watching the girls land ungracefully at the bottom of the powdered hill.

“Maybe we should get an actual sled,” Felix said, raising an eyebrow.

“That sounds better,” Basile said, from where he was holding onto Felix’s pant leg, staring warily at the girls. “I don’t want to ride on that.”

“Chicken,” Sylvain said, ignoring Felix’s scolding look and staring Basile down until he snorted a laugh into Felix’s leg. “Common sense in my children. A terrible day indeed.”

“You’re lucky you’re holding Markus or I’d shove you down the hill without the sled,” Felix threatened.

“I don’t know that sounds fun,” Sylvain said. “Just sliding on my stomach and seeing how fast I could go?”

“Don’t mention that in front of our daughter,” Felix said, pained.

Sylvain glanced back to where Ameline and her friend were dragging the shield back up the hill, faces flush with cheer and exertion. Sylvain smiled at them and then walked over to Felix, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “She’ll probably think of it on her own.”

“Which is why we’re out here,” Felix said, leaning into him and digging his fingers into Sylvain’s coat to gently touch the top of Markus’s sleeping head. “To make sure they don’t do what they’re thinking.”

“What about a snowballista fight?” Sylvain asked, leaning forward a little so that Basile caught his eye again.

“Maybe,” Basile gave him, considering it.

“You like winter too much,” Felix said.

Sylvain shrugged and kissed Felix’s cheek. “Mmm, maybe I just like you in winter.”

“Gross!” Ameline said as she finally made her way up the hill.

Sylvain looked at Ameline and then at Felix. Felix sighed, long suffering, and helped Sylvain undo the ties holding Markus to his chest and took him instead. Small baby eyes opened blinking at the change, but he was quickly soothed as Felix took a solid hold of him, shielding him from the cold.

That left Sylvain free to hoist Basile up in the air to laughing protests, and run after Ameline to demand she fight her way into having the next turn. Never one to turn down a challenge, Ameline enlisted her friend to help her and Sylvain allowed himself to be tossed into the snow, with children throwing snowballistas at him. Basile refrained from participating, choosing instead to examine _Aegis_ with the curiosity of a scholar.

Sylvain looked up, avoiding a face full of snow and saw Felix smiling at him, with an open fondness that never failed to twist into his gut.

It was a perfect winter day.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are always appreciated! 
> 
> Sylvix fankids are Lora's, borrowed by me to throw more fluff at everyone. 
> 
> If you liked this, please retweet it [here](https://twitter.com/waffle_fancy/status/1335310839725748224?s=20)! And go show [Lora](https://twitter.com/aimlessknight) ALL THE LOVE for the amazing artwork they did.
> 
> And while you're at it check out the other [Sylvix Advent Calendar](https://twitter.com/SylvixCalendar) offerings!


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